History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part I: The Pre-NEXRAD Era

Whiton, Roger C.; Smith, Paul L.; Bigler, Stuart G.; Wilk, Kenneth E.; Harbuck, Albert C.

doi:10.1175/1520-0434(1998)013<0219:hoouow>2.0.co;2

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The early spotter networks were primarily used to warn military bases of approaching tornadoes during and after World War II, but they were expanded for civilian protection in the 1950s, especially in Texas (Doswell et al 1999). Radar was being converted from military to meteorological use in the late 1940s and the 1950s (e.g., Whiton et al 1998;Bigler 1981), and it was shown in the early 1950s to be a tool for detecting tornadoes. A "hook echo" was photographed on the radar display at the Illinois State Water Survey on 9 April 1953 and was associated with a tornado (Whiton et al 1998;Stout and Huff 1953).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Radar was being converted from military to meteorological use in the late 1940s and the 1950s (e.g., Whiton et al 1998;Bigler 1981), and it was shown in the early 1950s to be a tool for detecting tornadoes. A "hook echo" was photographed on the radar display at the Illinois State Water Survey on 9 April 1953 and was associated with a tornado (Whiton et al 1998;Stout and Huff 1953). On 11 May 1953, a devastating tornado caused 110 fatalities in Waco, Texas (Winston 1953), and a 10-cm wavelength radar at Texas A&M University, being used to determine if radar data could be used in weather analysis, showed another hook-shaped echo associated with this storm (Kahan 1953;Whiton et al 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…A "hook echo" was photographed on the radar display at the Illinois State Water Survey on 9 April 1953 and was associated with a tornado (Whiton et al 1998;Stout and Huff 1953). On 11 May 1953, a devastating tornado caused 110 fatalities in Waco, Texas (Winston 1953), and a 10-cm wavelength radar at Texas A&M University, being used to determine if radar data could be used in weather analysis, showed another hook-shaped echo associated with this storm (Kahan 1953;Whiton et al 1998). These events, along with radar detection of another hook echo associated with a tornado near Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1953, showed that radar could be used to identify tornadoes or at least the storms that produce them (Whiton et al 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…On 11 May 1953, a devastating tornado caused 110 fatalities in Waco, Texas (Winston 1953), and a 10-cm wavelength radar at Texas A&M University, being used to determine if radar data could be used in weather analysis, showed another hook-shaped echo associated with this storm (Kahan 1953;Whiton et al 1998). These events, along with radar detection of another hook echo associated with a tornado near Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1953, showed that radar could be used to identify tornadoes or at least the storms that produce them (Whiton et al 1998). Other authors performed studies on radar indications of possible tornadoes (e.g., Donaldson 1961).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Communications between USWB offices and public officials were greatly enhanced. This allowed not only improved "ground truth" spotter information related to the weather associated with radar echoes to the USWB but also a more efficient method of dissemination of warning information from USWB to local officials (e.g., Whiton et al 1998;AMS 1955;Kahan 1953). As stated in a NWS technical attachment on the Tornado warning conference, "it can be fairly said that those aspects of today's NWS severe weather operations are rooted in the June 1953 gathering" (NWS 2003).…”

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confidence: 99%

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The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States

Coleman

Knupp

Spann³

et al. 2011

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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Since the successful tornado forecast at Tinker AFB in 1948 paved the way for the issuance of tornado warnings, the science of tornado detection and forecasting has advanced greatly. However, tornado warnings must be disseminated to the public to be of any use. The Texas tornado warning conferences in 1953 began to develop the framework for a modern tornado warning system and included radar detection of tornadoes, a spotter network, and improved communications between the U.S. Weather Bureau, spotters, and public officials, allowing more timely warnings and dissemination of those warnings to the public. Commercial radio and television are a main source of warnings for many, and the delivery methods on TV have changed much since 1960. NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) was launched after the 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes, with the most important feature being the tone alert that allowed receivers to alert people even when the radio broadcast was turned off. Today, NWR reaches most of the U.S. population, and Specific Area Message Encoding technology has improved its warning precision. Outdoor warning sirens, originally designed for use in enemy attack, were made available for use during tornado warnings around 1970. “Storm based” warnings, adopted by the National Weather Service in 2007, replaced countybased warnings and greatly reduce the warning area. As communications advances continue, tornado warnings will eventually be delivered to precise locations, using GPS and other location technology, through cellular telephones, outdoor sirens, e-mails, and digital television, in addition to NWR.

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The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States

Coleman

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Spann³

et al. 2011

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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Meteorological Radar

Chandrasekar

Baldini

2018

Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

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Meteorological radar uses information from the amplitude, and phase, at different polarization states of the scattered electromagnetic wave to reveal relevant properties of clouds and precipitation for weather monitoring and forecasting in short time the behavior of hazardous storms. Since mid‐1950s, many countries have deployed networks of meteorological radars: nowadays, stand‐alone radars or networks of meteorological radars are key tools for most of national weather services. The last couple of decades have been very exciting time for the fields of weather radar science and technology. The major technological advances include operational adaptation of dual‐polarization technology and large‐scale deployment and upgrades with meteorological services, introduction of the concept of dense network of radars through the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) project, and space‐borne weather radars.This article starts with a simple introduction of the meteorological radar basics, and then describes one of the most important application of weather radars worldwide, namely, the quantitative precipitation estimation. Subsequently, examples of radar observations of winter storms and summer convective storms are presented, followed by one of the popular applications used by operational forecasters, namely, nowcasting. Criteria to design networks of radars, based on two different paradigms (sparse network and dense network), are also presented. Finally, the space‐borne radars for measuring clouds and precipitation from space, introduced through the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) program first and followed by theCloudSatand Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) programs, are described.

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Ground-Based Radar Technologies for Tornado Observations

Bodine

Kurdzo

2018

Remote Sensing of Clouds and Precipitation

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History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part I: The Pre-NEXRAD Era

Cited by 26 publications

References 32 publications

The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States

The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States

Meteorological Radar

Ground-Based Radar Technologies for Tornado Observations

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